Behind Texas's Looming Crisis: Groundwater Scarcity

By Forrest Wilder, Texas Observer. Posted May 19, 2009.

Why, then, has Rep. Patrick Rose, the Democrat who beat Rick Green in a squeaker of a race in 2002, been reluctant to give the groundwater district greater power to regulate and possibly save the Trinity Aquifer? That question nags conservationists in Hays County. For three sessions, the district and its backers have asked Rose to file a bill granting full regulatory powers. Rose has steadfastly declined, saying that he doesn't think the district should have taxation powers and that the issue is divisive. Four months into this legislative session, he offered a "compromise" bill that allowed the district to collect fees for two years to help pay for a groundwater sustainability study -- what Hollon compares to "throwing some candy to kids in the backseat to quiet them on a long trip." In late April, the district board voted to say "thanks, but no thanks" to the proposal.

Miffed, Rose yanked the bill a few days later.

"Why are the legislators throwing us down a dry well?" asks board president Backus. "They're in the process of helping developers get water utility districts, but they're not helping the Hays-Trinity district get powers equivalent to all the surrounding groundwater districts. There's something else going on."

The sense that Rose is protecting development and real estate interests is widespread among the sustainability crowd. "The only reason I can see that Rose and [Sen. Jeff] Wentworth are so reluctant to grant the district the tools it needs to get the job done is they're giving in to the real estate interests who want a weak district," says Jim McMeans, a founder of Citizens Alliance for Responsible Development, a Wimberley-based group that promotes "sensible growth" and has won major concessions from developers. (Wentworth is a San Antonio Republican.)

Rose is a real-estate agent with his parents' own Rose Real Estate in Drippings Springs. From 2004 to 2008, he received nearly $300,000 in campaign contributions from real estate interests and developers, according to the nonprofit watchdog Texans for Public Justice. One of Rose's top donors is Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who primarily funds Republican candidates.

Rose declined requests by phone, by e-mail and in person to be interviewed for this story.

Whatever explains legislators' inaction, it looks like western Hays County will have to wait until 2011, when another Legislature convenes, to address its water problems.

"Sadly, I think it's too late for them," says Marbury. She quickly softens that statement. "They would have to throw caution to the wind ... and there would be a severe backlash from Realtors, developers, and current permit holders."

Hollon, the Wimberley native, knows what they're up against. "We've got to come to terms with our growth," he says. "Growth is fundamental to capitalism, our banking system and so forth, but it doesn't make much sense ecologically speaking. That's going to take some time to seep in."

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